A blog about lovely Waterlooville, a small, environmentally damaged town in Hampshire, UK. Waterlooville was founded after the Battle of Waterloo in 1815, as troops from that conflict returned home and passed through Hampshire. Having grown from a small village to a suburban sprawl, Waterlooville faces serious environmental challenges today and in the future.

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Friday, April 24

I'm in the middle of decorating the kitchen now, using eco-friendly paint. Having abandoned the idea of using Nature Paint on the previous project and instead opting for Earth Born Emulsion. I have decided to return to Nature Paint and bought a second 1kg pack.

As previously stated, Nature Paint comes in powder form and is mixed with warm water to create the paint. You just mix up as much as you need. The paper packet that it comes in can be recycled and any left over powder can apparently be composted, although i haven't tried this yet.

The first coat has been applied to the walls.

As well as painting the walls, I have decided to use eco-friendly paint on the woodwork. For this I have decided to try out Auro paints.

Tuesday, April 21

The Taylor/Wimpey West of Waterlooville MDA development is now called 'Dukes Meadow' and is going ahead. Bryant seems to be the developer now??
I'm not sure what the deal is between Taylor/Wimpey and Bryant. Taylor/Wimpey were in trouble at the end of last year.

Wednesday, April 15

We can look forward to more jobs losses as the Havant Tescos gets the green light to increase in size. Tory councillors and Tescos itself claim the larger store will create 300 jobs. Which is a misleading statement when the business will clearly be competing with other businesses that already sale similar products.

The store will sale electronics products, many of which will be imported, increasing carbon footprints. Also the increased size will mean the store will have a larger catchment area, attracting car drivers, increasing their carbon footprints.

Today, UK apple producers were pointing out that price competition between supermarkets is pushing apple prices down, resulting in more imports. This follows the trend in milk, vegetables and other food produce, where more and more is being imported.
This is not good news for the future of the nation.

Friday, April 10

This was an estate agent. There are still estate agents in town, but this one didn't survive. Notice the building above the shop front. These buildings were once little cottages just outside the main high street.
They were probably sucked into the commercial high street in the 1930s or 1960s.
Waterlooville was ruined in the 1960s by un-fettered commercial development and so called modernisation.

Woolworths. Yes last year Waterlooville had a small one, it was actually quite popular, but it also had a lot of competition when Wilko, Argos, supermarkets, the internet etc. moved in or offered competition.

This started out as a motorbike/scooter gear shop which although i didn't like much, was actually quite cool. Before that it was a shoe shop for a decade or two, until Brantano moved into the retail park.
The motorbike shop was converted into a tacky gift shop, which frankly had no chance of surviving a recession.

And it didn't!

This was a shop selling electric mobility scooters and other stuff for those that had problems getting around. Did they go bust or did they move???
I don't know, you would think with an ageing population that they would be still in business.
But maybe people are making do with walking sticks?

Again, look at the top of the building, it could have been a butchers or something like that in Victorian times.

Believe it or not, in the 1970s the Baytree Bookshop once stood on this corner. I know because one of the shop assistants back then was a friend. It was a little tradition corner shop.

The building that was there has been knocked down by some small time developers that obviously ran out of cash when the banking crisis hit and the banks had no money to hand out.
It was meant to be a shop with flats above. I only ever saw about 3 people working on it. All work is now stopped.

Just about all the news agents have card sections, including WH Smith. So why does Waterlooville need card shops?

well it has one less now.

Jacksons, this is a success story. It isn't closed, it's a small local shop and electricians business that is likely to survive in any boom and recession.

Everyone needs this sort of business, like everyone needs their hair cut. They will always be successful.

Waterlooville highstreet. Actually it is holding up quite well, this photo was taken on quite a busy day, although it doesn't look like it.

Which makes you wonder about all those old Victorian photos with streets that look empty. In reality they were probably quite busy.

Oh and BTW, all the cars are parked in massive car parks just outside Waterlooville, this pleasant photo hides that.

Thursday, April 9

I seem to have surpassed myself!
Having been through the cold winter that should in theory have increased my energy use compared to last year, my winter electricity bill is a whopping 37.5% less than the same time last year!

My Autumn bill was 20% less than last year, so a cut of almost 40% is a fantastic winter result. If everyone could do this (including businesses), we wouldn't need any coal fired power stations and we could get rid of a few gas fired power stations as well!

This was achieved using the same basic techniques highlighted in my previous posts on saving (electricity) energy.

As stated before i'm still using the computer as much as ever and watching TV. But the key to the massive cuts is a change in how i keep warm, laundry, cooking etc. Frankly my standard of living hasn't changed a lot, just the bad habits of energy use.